From October 1944 to August 1945, over 3,000 Japanese army and navy
pilots died attempting to crash their planes into Allied ships. Smaller numbers died manning weapons that were specifically designed for missions
which offered no hope of survival for their operators. At the time of Japan's
surrender, thousands of such weapons, along with their crews, were stationed
in readiness for the defence of the homeland.

Although formally the term 'Kamikaze' refers only to the Shinpū ('divine
wind') Special Attack Corps formed at the instigation of Admiral Onishi in
October 1944, in this chapter it is used to refer to all premeditated suicide
missions (SMs) conducted by the Japanese military during this period. The
human-wave assaults by Japanese soldiers that characterized the defence of
islands in the latter stage of the war are, however, excluded even though they
resulted in almost certain death (the only soldiers to be captured were those
too weak to blow themselves up). This exclusion is justified on the grounds
that they were conducted by men already in battle and, given their refusal to
surrender, facing imminent destruction. Although far less numerous, SMs
were also conducted by other countries during the same conflict (see Appendix to Chapter 3).

Kamikaze Precedents

Throughout the Pacific War, aircraft crashed into enemy ships. Such attacks
increased from the battle for Guadalcanal in the latter half of 1942. In many
cases these planes or their pilots had suffered from enemy fire and were unlikely to make the journey back home. Some, however, were deliberate
attacks by undamaged planes. Although the vast majority of these acts
were committed by Japanese pilots, there are at least two incidents of
deliberate suicidal attacks by US airmen on Japanese ships, one during the
battle of Coral Sea in May 1942, the other at Midway the following month.
In both cases witnesses claimed the pilots need not have died.

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